Cellular radio was conceived to provide high capacity mobile communications without requiring large amounts of spectrum. The original concept as proposed by AT&T, involves the use of a frequency band within a region known as a cell and reusing the same frequency band in other adjacent cells with manageable interference between cells.
The capacity of a cellular radio network increases as the number of cells increases with decreasing cell size. The small cells are known as microcells. Optical fibers have been used to feed the RF signal to microcells. Optical fiber can be run inside buildings, train stations, malls, etc. to improve coverage in a wireless communications system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,357 describes a number of details of a fiber optic microcellular radio system.
Present day wireless communications systems may be divided into a number of groups. These include cellular telephone networks, cordless telephones, wide area data networks, wireless local area networks, paging/messaging and satellite mobile systems. Each wireless communications system has its own frequency band and modulation scheme as well as its own geographic location in which the system is deployed. Some of these systems may become obsolete while others may evolve into future personal communication systems. Nevertheless, it appears that two or more wireless systems will commonly be found in any location.
Conventionally, each wireless communications system has its own network for improved coverage in buildings and other shadowed areas. A building which requires improved coverage for more than one wireless service must be "wired" separately for each service.